Copy The Men - My Advice to Women in a Man’s World
What’s up with the gender gap in horse sport?
One of the things I love most about equestrian sport is how males and females - both horses and riders - compete equally. I brag about this, and often expound on how masculine and feminine strengths, though different, can be equally effective. In the ring there’s a genuine equality, there’s no indication that a man is faster, stronger, smarter or gutsier than a woman in any given class. It’s a beautiful thing to appreciate!
However, at the top of the sport men are unmistakably dominant. In the current showjumping world rankings as of December 2025, less than 20% of the Top 100 are women. Only one woman - Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum- has ever been #1 in the world.
Many factors play into this, but globally speaking, a rider’s physical strength isn’t one of them. In other sports men are accepted to be “better” athletes because of their inherent size, strength, speed, and endurance compared to women, but this is not the edge that tips the scales in equestrian sport- with the horses themselves as the great athletic equalizer. From what I can tell, the gender gap in our sport is psychological.
While the top of the sport is overwhelmingly male, the amateur and lower levels of showjumping are extremely female dominant. More women start riding, and dramatically fewer women make it to the top. It’s not a numbers game, it’s a mind game.
It’s trendy to complain about how it’s harder to make it as a woman - and that may be true - but complaining isn’t going to change anything. I’ve spent some time trying to figure out what women can actually do differently. My answer is pretty simple - copy the men. Without any psychological credentials or scientific research, here’s some of my observatory analysis:
Be Reckless
Women are inherently more risk averse, for a million biological reasons. You can argue that this shows up in the ring sometimes, but I think this shows up more in professional decision making. Male riders are more likely to take risks to get opportunities; more likely to enter classes with the odds stacked against them, to make a risky investments, and to take on a project without a surefire plan. Fortune favors the bold. Not only does being impulsive and taking risks create great opportunities when it goes well, it also creates high level learning experiences when it goes poorly. When you have to navigate yourself out of a hole is often when we learn the most and hone the deep resiliency needed to stick it out in the Top Sport.
Now I don’t like the idea of being reckless any more than you do, especially when horses are involved, but this isn’t about being comfortable, it’s about getting to the top. Women might have to risk more - and both succeed and fail more - to build experiences rapidly. Mistakes are unfortunately inevitable for everyone. The womanly urge to avoid risk will never totally evade problems, but hesitating and seeking arbitrary security might slow down growth.
Be Results Oriented
Women are more intrinsically motivated, finding satisfaction in “the process” and feeling comfortable setting their own unique standards for success; ie a smooth round, or an improvement on yesterday. This contributes to superior horsemanship, but to get more women in the to 100 riders in the world, we may need to be more fixed on winning.
Men, on the other hand are wired to be more motivated by extrinsic factors, being gratified more by results, money, points, status, etc. It’s not that they can’t appreciate internal progress, but they’re considerably more objective about success and failure.
Women tend to pride themselves on the bond they have with the animals, being patient with them, and being able to see the long term path to glory. Men more often pride themselves on winning. A man is less likely to harbor a romanticized attachment to a horse that isn’t successful in competition than a woman is.
I personally love to think that I am a better person because I love my horses deeply and am abundantly patient with them, but I have most certainly wasted years waiting for a horse to develop into a winner that never gets there. Years I could have spent investing effort and money into a horse with more potential to succeed. This approach demands a heightened tolerance of failure - and while being able to handle defeat is important, surely at some point comfort with failure can work against you in a competitive sport.
Women should be more objective about successes and failures- what is working and what isn’t working. Strategize to win.
Be Confrontational - Demand More With Less Emotion
As a woman, one of the toughest issues in the sport is managing professional relationships. While everyone struggles with clients, colleagues, grooms, farriers and vets; men tend to resolve team-related issues more quickly.
One example - a female rider I know baked a cake every single month when her farrier came, yet had incredible issues with the farrier not showing up, shafting her horses, and blatantly disrespecting her schedule. A male trainer who constantly threatened to fire the same farrier and didn’t even know the guy’s last name got priority service with he same number of horses to shoe. That’s a bad example for etiquette and manners and it’s antithetical to how I believe people should operate, but it’s an interesting thing to note regarding getting prioritized.
Even the toughest women spend a lot of energy trying to be friendly, likable, and understanding and still struggle with feeling walked over. Men tend to communicate more directly, more selfishly, and get what they want out of others more effectively. They may ruffle feathers and have more sum negative interactions, but they also weed out bad employees faster, waste less time getting effective support, and expend far less energy worrying about how to communicate best - energy that could be better spent developing themselves and their horses.
Now, a lot of women will argue that if they conduct themself as brashly as the average man, they’ll be labeled as a bitch or a brat… But again, I’m not sure if women are going to be able to socially-comply their way to international dominance. Women could benefit from being careful about wasting excessive time and energy on communicating non-confrontationally and instead find the most efficient way to set expectations and enforce boundaries.
In the end, the best thing for our career is the best care for our horses. Demanding a high standard from the people in your camp is the most respectful thing you can do for your horses. A hard truth: women letting themselves be walked over in the name of kindness/compassion are in the end disrespecting their horses and themselves.
Be Consistent - Stop Reassessing
Men are wired with a one track mind. In general, they stick with careers longer and consider fallback plans less. This is reflected in our sport. Many a woman who has a meteoric rise to stardom early in their career step back from the sport completely when they hit career dips. There are multiple examples of young women in the USA alone who have competed and even medaled in major championships and within 10 years were onto completely different careers outside of horses. Less men follow this pattern.
I would say at least 70% of female professionals that I am friendly with have expressed interest in changing careers, working on a side-project outside of horses, or working on a degree as a “backup plan.” I don’t know any male riders/trainers who have ever spoken about jumping ship or going back to school. The few men I know who have developed secondary businesses only did so to generate income needed to double down on their riding.
There’s something to be said for burning the boats. If you don’t have a backup plan, come hell or high water you find a way to keep going. If you have the idea that there could be a whole different life awaiting you elsewhere, the hard moments are not going to feel “worth it.” Bad times will come without a doubt - when you’re going through it, you need to invest 100% of your energy into muscling though and moving forward. It’s a long career in horses, many of the best riders peak in their 50s, but you have to stay in it to get there. Stay focused and consistent.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Short Term Oriented
One of the things that makes women superior beings (in my opinion) is our ability to see long term consequences and strategize for the long term future. You may be aware - especially if you’re ever tried to have a long term relationship with a man - that men are more inclined to live in the moment and plan no more than a few weeks in advance. Men are more likely to be OK winging it, and assuming they’ll find a way out of whatever situations they get into. While this can create some messy situations, there’s a benefit to short-term thinking. With horses especially, things ALWAYS change. It’s Murphy’s Law every single day, and there’s not always a benefit to long-term strategizing.
Because so little is guaranteed with horses, we can be punished for planning too far in advance. Men are more ruthless - more ready to up and go to a show because there’s big prize money and low entries, or bring a horse that’s less prepared to a new venue because they have space on the trailer. Ready to optimize for success and opportunity rather than comfort and long-term payoff.
As someone who lives almost exclusively for long-term payoffs, I realize how frequently plans get derailed by things like random injuries, unexpected sales, horse shows being cancelled, clients changing plans, or your farrier not showing up before your biggest show… So these sprawling 6-12 moth plans are often a waste of time (again- somewhere where precious energy is wasted). When you’re motivated by extra long-term plans and things get derailed, it’s hard to regroup / stay motivated. Women could benefit from being more flexible with long-term goals / outcomes and detaching from each notch in the plan as an indication of ultimate success or failure.
I’m no expert, and I struggle to implement these ideas myself, but everything I’ve observed tells me these strategies are more likely to help than to hurt. If we can shift women closer to 50% of the world’s top 100, the moves made are not going to be comfortable. I know there’s many unaddressed issues here (ie biological difference, societal pressure, pregnancies/motherhood, sponsors, etc) but even just base level, women can simply emulate the behaviors that work for men to get better and faster success. I also believe that women are far superior to men in many other ways (more on that later!), but by adopting some male strategies, we don’t have to give up the inherently superior woman traits. In the end, maybe we could even surpass them entirely.
January 7, 2026
By Megan McDermott
